[FRIAM] Globalism in the age of populism? .. & Open Source Software

[Owen Densmore]

I like the analysis lifting the lid on elite relating to global. I'm not
sure it goes both ways .. lots of plain folks are global without noticing
it.

I don't think this sort of elite/global can be turned back. Look at your
day and surely you will collect a whole basket full of global interaction.
I'm not talking chinese underwear here, but human interactions.

Simple things like co-workers from Iran (Behfar Razavi for me), a mail list
like friam with folks from many cultures, travel and learning the language,
cooking Italian/French/Japanese food (did all that over the last two
weeks), and so on.

The point I'm making is that it's too late to put the toothpaste back in
the tube. No matter what occurs with the populists, globalism is past its
tipping point.

Me? Elite? Well maybe. Techie sure. But also a blue-collar background, and
a southerner who's lost his twang in the peace corps in africa. Oh, and a
buddheo/christian. Categories are never easy. :)

I can't be elite, come to think of it. I listened to Hillary and kept
asking "What's she *saying*?". It was way too abstract. Are elites
abstract? And yes, I voted for her, reluctantly.

   -- Owen

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 9:09 AM, ┣glen┫ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Heh, your juxtaposition and question are ill-formed, which is why I tried
> to reach some clarity on what that article in the OP meant.
>
> Open source is at least in part a political movement with its own
> conception of "elites", spawning the various license types and long-running
> legal battles.  To consider any sort of globalist implications solely from
> the myopic tools and tools communities mentality isn't useful.  That would
> be like assuming the existence of worldwide sports like soccer or the
> Olympics will obviate war.
>
> Open source (and data and the larger "openly sourced" information) are
> just as susceptible to provincialism as democracies.  And the mechanisms
> are the same, inflammatory accusations based on ill-defined classification
> systems (including the ones Marcus mentions about "munitions").  I've
> argued here on the list that with some open source tools, it literally does
> not matter whether they are open source or not because only a tiny handful
> of people on the planet are capable of reading them.  E.g. cryptographic
> software used to be more "elite" than it is today.  But it's still pretty
> obscure.  And these elites stay elite (through their own work, social
> privilege, and gene-given attributes) because tech advances.
>
> You, Owen, are so extraordinarily privileged that you may not adequately
> realize the extent of it.  Yes, for people like you, with your intellect,
> your hard work, etc., you will never be at risk for back-sliding into
> provincialism.  Even if/when the US slides into a dark age, you can simply
> leave or get a job with the new dictator divining truth from the stars.
> But what about the huge swaths of us that live under things like poverty or
> opiate addiction?  (Just to be clear, I'm in the same boat ... at least
> until I get brain damage from a motorcycle crash or my cancer transforms
> into a more aggressive kind.)
>
> We are global because we are elite.  Just because we will be able to
> except ourselves from much of the back slide doesn't mean it can't happen.
> And the more vulnerable amongst us elite will definitely "go back".
>
>
> On 01/30/2017 07:32 PM, Owen Densmore wrote:
> > Does anyone have an opinion on the OP:
> >   Globalism in the age of populism? .. & Open Source Software
> >
> > .. which really is about that it's too late for populism, nationalism,
> isolationism to overcome what is already around us? We are far more global
> than we think we are.
> >
> > ​How many of us are bilingual at least? Look at your "digital day" and
> ask yourself just how, in so many ways, you've gone past ever going back.
> >
> > My original example surprised me when I discovered just how many global,
> non-US dominant open source software movements I'm involved in. My interest
> was in how many similar cases of globalism occur outside of my domain.
> >
> > So even though there are 10 (OP) huge forces against globalism, they
> simply cannot overcome where we are, we're past the tipping point.
> Certainly in software.
> >
> > And you?
>
>
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